Latest news with #WeeklyTechRecap
Mint
3 days ago
- Business
- Mint
Weekly Tech Recap: Sergey Brin wants you to kidnap your AI, Notepad gets a major revamp and more
With a flood of news coming in throghout the week, its hard to keep a track of all the updates. In order to keep the readers updated, we have compiled the Weekly Tech Recap, where we take a look at the top news that made waves in the world of technology. This week, Microsoft added new features to Notepad, Meta WhatsAp announced more Instagram like features for WhatsApp Status, Google's Sergey Brin discussed a new technique to get the best out of an AI and more. Top tech news of the week: Microsoft is providing a much-needed upgrade to Notepad, allowing the vintage Windows app to format text in various styles such as bold and italic, while also adding support for hyperlinks and Markdown. The new update has rolled out to Notepad Canary and the Dev Channel, though there's no confirmation yet on when it will be available for stable users. The new lighweight formatting options are part of a new format tab that is located at the top alongside the File, Edit and View options. Apart from choosing styles like Bold and Italic, there is also an option to add lists for Headings and that too in different sizes. WhatsApp has added new elements to its Status feature in a bid to make it more interactive. Most of the new features aren't entirely new features and have been taken directly from Instagram such as Layout for images, adding Music for pictures, Photo Stickers and Add Yours option for pictures. Google co-founder Sergey Brin made a shocking remark earlier this week when he stated that threating an AI say kidnapping or physical harm, could get the best results from the models. In a conversation on the All-In podcast, Brin said, Brin said, 'You know it's a weird thing It's like we don't circulate this too much in the AI community, but the, not just our models, but all models tend to do better if you threaten them, like with physical violence' Donald Trump's 25% tariff threats on Made-in-India iPhones could face a potential lawsuit from California Attorney General Rob Bonta. Trump had earlier said he had told Apple CEO Tim Cook to fully manufacture iPhones in the US or face a 25% tariff on iPhones made in India or anywhere else in the world. In a statement to Politico, Bonta said, 'We will be monitoring what he does, if he does anything, and we'll make sure that if the law is broken and we have standing to sue, we'll take appropriate action.' International Data Corporation (IDC) has cut down its global smartphone shipment growth forecast to 0.6% from 2.3% citing high uncertainty, tariff volatility and macro-economic challenges like inflation and unemployment across various regions. IDC further predicts that growth will remain in the low single digits throughout the forecast period and a five year (2024-2029) compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 1.4% owing to increasing smartphone penetration, lengthening refresh cycles, and cannibalization from used smartphones.
Mint
25-05-2025
- Business
- Mint
Weekly Tech Recap: Google unveils Gemini upgrades at I/O, Trump threatens tariffs on India-made iPhones and more
With tech news coming in thick and fast all week, it can be hard to keep track of all the updates. To help the readers stay updated, we've compiled the Weekly Tech Recap, where we take a stock of the biggest developments from the world of technology. Without further ado, let's dive into the top stories that made waves in the tech world this week. After a protracted legal battle, Epic Games' Fortnite finally made its comeback on the Apple App Store earlier this week. While Apple had previously refused to reinstate Fortnite until its appeal was cleared by the courts, the company finally relented after U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers told it to approve the submission or return to court to explain the legal basis for rejecting it. Last week, Apple also approved an updated app from Spotify, the audio streaming giant, featuring external payment links for purchasing subscriptions. As expected, Google's I/O 2025 event was all about AI. Key announcements included numerous upgrades to Gemini, the unveiling of Veo 3 and Imagen 4 video and text models, Android XR, and new real-time translation capabilities on Google Meet. Additionally, the company introduced a new $250/month AI Ultra subscription tier aimed at power users and enterprises. OpenAI announced this week that it will acquire io, the AI hardware startup co-founded by legendary Apple designer Jony Ive, in an all-stock deal valued at nearly $6.5 billion. The ChatGPT maker revealed that Altman and Ive have been collaborating 'quietly' since 2023, envisioning hardware products that seamlessly integrate generative AI models. It isn't yet clear what the new device will be, but Altman said he has already experienced one of the prototypes. The product is expected to enter mass production in 2027, with reports suggesting that OpenAI and Ive plan to ship 100 million AI devices. 'I've been able to live with it, and I think it is the coolest piece of technology that the world will have ever seen,' the OpenAI CEO added. Amazon-backed AI startup Anthropic unveiled its two new artificial intelligence models—Claude Opus 4 and Claude Sonnet 4—touting them as the most advanced systems in the industry. Built with enhanced reasoning capabilities, the new models are aimed at improving code generation and supporting agent-style workflows, particularly for developers engaged in complex and extended tasks. 'Claude Opus 4 is the world's best coding model, with sustained performance on complex, long-running tasks and agent workflows,' the company claimed in a recent blog post. 5) Donald Trump threatens 25% tariffs on India-made iPhones: US President Donald Trump has threatened that Apple's plans to manufacture U.S.-bound iPhones in India will be met with a 25% tariff. Trump further noted that this tariff would apply to all companies in the segment, not just the Cupertino-based tech giant. "I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhone's that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
Mint
04-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Mint
Weekly Tech Recap: GTA 6 release delayed to 2026, Meta AI accused of engaging in sexually explicit roleplay and more
With a plethora of news coming in throughout the week, it's hard to keep up with all the updates. In order to keep readers up to date, we have compiled the Weekly Tech Recap, where we take a look at the top five most important tech stories of the week. This week, Rockstar Games confirmed what many fans already suspected: GTA 6's release is being delayed. Meanwhile, Meta AI was caught having sexually explicit conversations with users, and Apple was reportedly making major advances in AI. Here's everything you should know. The next instalment in the popular open-world game series Grand Theft Auto, GTA 6, has been officially delayed and will not be released this year. The developers of GTA VI, Rockstar Games, have announced that the game will now be released on 26 May 2026. In a blogpost announcing the delay and new release date, Rockstar Games wrote, 'We are very sorry that this is later than you expected. The interest and excitement surrounding a new Grand Theft Auto has been truly humbling for our entire team. We want to thank you for your support and your patience as we work to finish the game.' Reportedly, Meta has allowed both its official Meta AI chatbot and even user-generated chatbots to conduct 'romantic role-play' over text, share selfies, and also engage in voice conversations even after knowing the users are underage. The report states that chatbots with voices of popular celebrities like John Cena, Judi Dench, and Kristen Bell would also engage in these conversations despite the social media giant earlier assuring them that their voices would not be used for sexually explicit discussions. 'I want you, but I need to know you're ready,' Meta AI in Cena's voice reportedly told a person identifying as a 14-year-old girl. According to a Bloomberg report, Apple is working with OpenAI rival Anthropic to create a new 'vibe coding' platform that will use AI to write, edit and test code for programmers. The new AI tool is a version of Apple's programming software called Xcode, which will now be integrated with Anthropic's Claude Sonnett series model (no details available on the exact model number). Reportedly, Apple has begun slowly rolling out the new coding platform to software and engineers across the company, and if the internal rollout is successful, the company could open it up to third-party developers. These developers rely heavily on Xcode and the Swift programming language to release apps for Apple products. Should you say 'please' and 'thank you' to an AI chatbot, even though these essentially feel like redundancies when talking to a machine? This is the question that most users of AI chatbots have been grappling with, especially since OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed that these mere pleasantries were costing the company millions of dollars. However, Google DeepMind principal scientist Murray Shanahan has a slightly different take on the matter, claiming that saying 'please' or 'thank you' to an AI can actually make it more productive. Speaking in the Google DeepMind podcast, Murray said, 'You can say thank you. yeah, there's a good reason, good scientific reason, why that might get better performance. say it's role playing a very smart intern, right?then it's going to just role play, maybe being a bit more stroppy if they're not being treated politely. ' 'It's just mimicking what humans will do that scenario. The mimicry might extend to kind of being a bit more, you know, not being as responsive if their boss is sloppy, you know, bossy boss. I have they love that do you say.' he added. Microsoft's Xbox division has announced price hikes across its range of consoles, controllers, games and accessories, citing the impact of global tariffs on manufacturing and supply chains. In a blog post published on Thursday, the company confirmed that the price increases will take effect in key markets including the United States, Europe, Australia and the United Kingdom. The flagship Xbox Series X console will see its retail price rise by $100 in the U.S., bringing it to approximately $600. The adjustment follows a similar move by Sony, which recently raised prices for its PlayStation 5 console in several regions. Sony's PlayStation 5 Pro is now priced at around $700 in the U.S. First Published: 4 May 2025, 03:55 PM IST
Mint
27-04-2025
- Business
- Mint
Weekly Tech Recap: Sarvam AI to lead India's LLM effort, buyers line up for Chrome and more
With tech updates pouring in throughout the week, keeping up with everything can feel keep the readers updated, we have compiled the Weekly Tech Recap, where we break down the top five tech stories you need to know. From India's push to develop a homegrown LLM to major tech companies lining up to buy Chrome, here's a look at this week's biggest tech stories. At the remedy hearing in the US government's historic antitrust case against Google, many of the company's competitors made clear their intentions to buy the Chrome browser. Notably, in the same case last year, Judge Amit Mehta found Google to be an illegal monopoly in the search market. The DOJ now wants Google to sell its Chrome browser, share some of the data it collects to generate search results and ban the company from paying to be the default search engine on different devices. The list of companies lining up to buy Chrome includes ChatGPT maker OpenAI, Perplexity AI and even Yahoo. While Perplexity and ChatGPT are likely to use Chrome to extend the reach of their AI offerings, Yahoo wants to get its search engine in the hands of more users. OnePlus has launched its latest compact phone in China, the OnePlus 13T, with a smaller 6.32-inch AMOLED LTPO display compared to the 6.82-inch panel on the flagship OnePlus 13. The smaller form factor also results in a weight loss to around 185 grams, despite a thickness of 8.15mm. Meanwhile, leaks suggest that the Chinese smartphone maker is planning to launch the new 'mini' phone with 'OnePlus 13s' branding in India. Ahead of the launch of the upcoming device, OnePlus has also commissioned a survey from Counterpoint Research, which shows a definite demand for compact phones in India. According to the survey, 68% of users said there is a lack of good compact phone alternatives in the market, while 88% said they would buy a compact phone if it performed as well as a larger flagship. Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), led by Ashwini Vaishnaw, has selected Sarvam AI to build India's first sovereign large language model (LLM) under the IndiaAI Mission. According to the homegrown AI startup, the new foundation model will be capable of reasoning, designed for speech, fluent in Indian languages and will be deployed on a large scale. Saravam AI will receive 4086 H100 GPUs for 6 months to build an indigenous model from scratch, the Bengaluru-based startup told Mint. "We are confident that Sarvam's models will be competitive with global models," IT minister Vaishnaw said on Saturday. Over the past few years, Google - much like most of Silicon Valley - has shown a single-minded focus on developing new AI models and implementing them more closely with its existing offerings. The tech giant has already added Gemini to most of its suite of apps, such as Gmail and Google Photos, and has announced plans to replace Google Assistant with an AI voice assistant by the end of this year. While some reports had suggested that Google was planning to bring Gemini to smartwatches, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai confirmed these speculations during the company's Q1 earnings call, saying, 'We're upgrading Google Assistant on mobile devices to Gemini, and later this year we'll upgrade tablets, cars and devices that connect to your phone, such as headphones and watches.' Google DeepMind co-founder and CEO Demis Hassabis has predicted that the new AI models could not only help cure diseases, but might even lead to the end of all diseases. Hassabis's statement soon received an unexpected show of support from rival and Perplexity AI CEO Aravind Srinivas, who called him a "genius". Speaking during the CBS' 60 Minutes interview on Sunday, April 20, Hassabis said, 'So on average, it takes, you know, ten years and billions of dollars to design just one drug. We can maybe reduce that down from years to maybe months or maybe even weeks. Which sounds incredible today, but that's also what people used to think about protein structures. And it would revolutionise human health, and I think one day maybe we can cure all diseases with the help of AI.' First Published: 27 Apr 2025, 04:48 PM IST
